Torrey's saltbush, like its close relative quailbush (A. lentiformis ssp. lentiformis), is a large, generally dioecious perennial shrub that can reach 6' in height. The herbage is gray-scurfy and the twigs are sharply-angled by rather prominent striae, which is the primary discriminant between this taxon and ssp. lentiformis which has smooth, ± terete and non-striate twigs.  The leaves are from 1/2" to 1-3/4" long, triangular to oblong-ovate, short-petioled, entire-margined, and sometimes with a hastate base. Both staminate and pistillate flowers are born on dense naked paniculate spikes, and the sessile fruiting bracts are compressed, suborbicular, and unfused, with a slightly crenulate margin.  Torrey's saltbush is occasional in alkaline clay soils of shadscale scrub, dry lakes and washes mostly in the northern Mojave Desert but having been planted also in saline areas along the South Coast.  It blooms from June to October. This particular shrub was planted in Lower Arroyo Park in Pasadena.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Atriplex 2) lentiformis 3) torreyi.
Pronunciation: AT-ri-plex len-ti-FOR-mis TOR-ee-eye.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.